Klarinet Archive - Posting 000093.txt from 1999/08

From: Ken Wolman <Ken.Wolman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Goodby to Manny's music store
Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 15:13:23 -0400

leeson@-----.edu wrote:
>
> famous music store "Manny's" on 48th street.
> Well according to today's NY Times, it has been sold to a rival, Sam Ash
> music. The two firms have been rivals for some time now so I suppose some-
> one had to win.

Pardon me while I go throw up. If this indeed so, then Sam Ash BECOMES
48th Street, and turns itself into the Microsoft of the New York music
retailers. They just swallow up everyone else. There are a couple of
small shops left, and there are the repair places that deal in
overhauled instruments, but this is just a sad development.

For what it's worth, the Ash salespeople DO seem a bit better than they
used to be; at least they appear to have gotten rid of the one woodwind
salesman whose snotty attitude was matched only by his lack of
knowledge. But the fact is that Ash will now control a substantial
percentage of the business among non-professionals who don't have pro
contacts in the repair shops, and who may not know about mail order.
This suggests that people who are "just shopping" for an instrument for
their kid or themselves can be steered to some of the real low-end crap
that Ash hawks in volume: literal STACKS of Winston and Jean Baptiste
clarinets and saxes piled up in the middle of the floor, Our Price
Cheap, "Duh, it's as good as a Mark VI, waddaya wanna used Buescher for,
this looks nicer!"

Yes, you can get good deals at Ash but you have to know what you want
when you walk in. It is not a place for the naive or
faint-of-saying-Don't bullshit me, please. And bring your own
mouthpiece.

Ken
--
Ken Wolman dbtrader Deutsche Bank, N.A.
1251 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 10019 212-469-6494
Teach someone to fish and you have helped them survive another day.
Teach them to surf the Net and they won't bother you for weeks.

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